Chapter 676: Wild Coincidences and Stacked Variables
The Special Secret Realm Exploration had reached its conclusion. The Infernal Dimension Arc was turning its final page.
Now, one might be thinking: they landed on Taemia, an Apex World in the Infernal Dimension. Hardly a ’Secret Realm.’
But in truth, Apex World Taemia occupied a unique, secluded pocket within the Infernal Dimension, isolated from the rest. So technically, Jamie wasn’t lying—this was indeed a ’Secret Realm.’
As for the cultivators, they were set to return to Denerth Prime by day’s end.
True to the spirits’ word, rewards awaited them. Originally, today was planned to treat the injured and mourn the fallen. Tomorrow, a victory celebration. Rewards would be distributed on the 17th.
But with the unexpected presence of Sect Master Chang, the High Elders, and, of course, Jamie, the timeline shifted.
First, there was the matter of the wounded and remaining devil forces. Though there were still stragglers, Jamie dismissed the need for further clean-up, assuring them the devils posed no threat.
"The battle is over. As per my agreement with the Infernal Devil King, the Infernal Devils won’t disturb Iohodis again.
It’s not just words, it’s a contract."
Jamie proceeded to toss the contract with the Infernal Devil King’s seal on it confirming the authenticity of his words to the Elder Spirits.
As for the injured, the assembled Race Kings, including Jamie, made quick work of healing the thousands of wounded.
With a simple snap of his fingers, Jamie restored Arthur and Evan to full health, their vitality returned to peak levels even if their energy reserves needed time to replenish. Arthur, in particular, who was at 30% health was very happy about this.
Even those teetering on the edge of death—cases that healers had deemed hopeless—were restored to full health with just a few snaps of the Sect Elders’ fingers. However, those who had already passed were not brought back.
It wasn’t that these powerful Sect Elders lacked the ability to revive them or didn’t possess Authorities over Life and Death; in fact, several did.
But bringing them back en masse without proper procedures taken before death the occurred, karmic ties and valid justifications would just attract unnecessary attention from the law of causality.
And honestly, Causality was a hassle so they’d rather not.
Speaking of proper procedures, special preparations to secure their lives after death had been made unbeknownst to the cultivators.
Many of these cultivators were either sect prodigies or the sons and daughters of influential powerhouses. Their sects couldn’t afford to lose them in large numbers like that.
Take Crim, for instance—the young vampire was the disciple of the Blood Moon Sect’s Great Elder and its former sect master. There was no way they’d let someone of her calibre perish on a random Apex World.
Thanks to the preparations made, even if death came knocking, it would leave empty-handed.
Every cultivator carried a brand forged from the laws of Life and Death.
These brands, created by the Sect Elders, prevented their souls from being claimed by the law of Death and dragged into the Underworld Dimension.
Since the Sect Elders had been nearby watching everything happening for the past ten weeks, they had quietly retrieved the souls—and in some cases, the bodies—of the fallen, ensuring their return.
It was easily made possible thanks to their alliance with the ’Absolute Death King’. From his title, this Infernal Devil King clearly had a Unique Authority over the law of death.
But there was a notable exception.
For anyone slain by a particular pair of teenagers, there was no coming back.
When Jamie mentioned this, Arthur and Evan exchanged glances and shrugged, unfazed.
The Elders from sects whose disciples had crossed paths fatally with the pair—the traitors, devil-allies, and the many others who had been courting death by antagonizing Arthur and Evan—were less than pleased.
Yet they remained silent, knowing they had no case to argue.
Arthur and Evan were unaware of the entire soul-branding setup. But even if they had known, it wouldn’t have stopped them from using their destructive powers to damage their opponents’ souls.
Damaging a soul weakened their enemies significantly, making the fights easier to handle. For them, it was a matter of survival, a true life-or-death struggle, and they didn’t hesitate to unleash their powers.
By damaging their foes’ souls, they unintentionally nullified any chance of revival—the brands simply couldn’t function on fractured souls.
As a result, any enemy they killed had their soul immediately claimed by the law of death and directed to a special section of the reincarnation path meant for handling damaged souls.
Besides, Jamie’s presence was a powerful deterrent.
Sure, he might have orchestrated this grand scheme majorly for his amusement, but he wasn’t about to let anyone mess with Arthur and Evan.
And this didn’t even consider the 71 other Demon Kings whose fury would be a whole different matter.
Achieving Transcendence before turning 18? Wielding four Pseudo-Authorities? If they had once valued Arthur because of his connection to Lucifer, now they esteemed him even more for his own potential.
And yes, the events of the past ten weeks had been made public on the Interstellar Stage!
So, not just Arthur, but Evan as well, were now basically prime real estate in the eyes of some of the greatest Intergalactic Powers of the Universe.
The displeased Sect Elders, no matter how frustrated, could do nothing.
Back to the matter of the spirits, with physical wounds healed and fatigue lifted, Sect Master Chang directed the spirits to begin the rewarding process.
Contributions would be measured, with rewards allocated accordingly.
The spirits’ mark, placed on each ally during the event, had tracked both allegiance and combat statistics.
This mark revealed not only who fought on their side but also who vanquished the strongest devils and how many they felled, ensuring that the rewards would truly reflect each cultivator’s effort in the battle.
The rewards were as grand as they were tailored to each cultivator’s efforts, with various forms of weaponry, and treasures that could advance cultivation, strengthen martial prowess, and refine skills. Alchemical pills sparkled in ornate jade bottles: bloodline pills and the like were up for grabs.
Some cultivators received Energy-Gathering Pills, designed to accelerate the condensation of energy within them, hastening their cultivation process exponentially.
As the reward processing continued, some sects were gradually leaving, with Elders taking their disciples directly back to their home worlds.
Meanwhile, Jamie had toyed with the idea of hosting an after-party—yet, given the still-raw rivalries between some groups, he quickly dismissed the idea, knowing it’d end up as a massive brawl rather than a celebration.
This brings us to the present scene at Nature’s Dwelling.
The atmosphere was lively yet orderly as cultivators lined up, receiving their rewards under the watchful eyes of several Race Kings who ensured everything went smoothly.
In the midst of it all stood Jamie, arms crossed and wearing an expression that could have turned stone to dust, as he aimed a sharp lecture at Arthur.
"Fighting against a Superior Transcendent right after achieving Transcendence? Reckless? More like batshit crazy!"
Jamie’s voice carried above the crowd, drawing more than a few curious glances.
Arthur, sitting before him with arms folded and eyes rolling ever-so-slightly, replied.
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first twenty times."
"If you had, you wouldn’t have needed the twenty-first!"
Now then, why was Jamie lecturing Arthur despite being the one who needed to get his ass beat for pulling off this whole Infernal Dimension plan?
It was simple. Arthur had taken a big risk in fighting Vonun.
Earlier, it was stated that the boy’s body needed to cool down after his breakthrough, but far from cooling down, Arthur fought a Superior Transcendent over Level 990.
Batshit crazy indeed.
Vonun did not realise this, but Arthur’s burst of power from his breakthrough had actually run out.
Then, how was Arthur able to continue fighting for as long as he did? Simple, he burned his cached EXP.
Arthur’s fight with Vonun was like a whirlwind of wild coincidences and stacked variables, each one an improbable link in the chain that somehow kept him going.
First, Arthur had just broken through to the Transcendent Realm—an evolution that involved an exponential surge in power as he surpassed Sovereignty.
His base stats had been sitting at the Intermediate Transcendent level even before his actual level caught up, so the initial transition bumped his level to match those pre-Transcendence stats.
Normally, this would be where his level would halt to stabilize, with the system planning to dole out his remaining cached EXP slowly, one level at a time over the coming weeks.
But alas, very rarely do things ever go according to plan.
Arthur was faced against Vonun, in a fight that demanded everything he had.
To the Devour Class system, an ’Intermediate Transcendent’ needed a certain level of ’power’, but Arthur burned through every bit of energy the system fed him, draining it as fast as it arrived.
Each time his power waned, the system, ’seeing’ the depletion, responded by tapping into his vast pool of cached EXP, supplying him with another boost to compensate.
In theory, the system was meant to level him up gradually, allowing his body time to adjust. Instead, it skipped the levelling process, turning the stored EXP directly into pure power, thinking it was needed immediately.
The cycle was ridiculous—an unintended loophole only possible due to Arthur’s existence which bent balancing laws around him.
With every surge of power used up instantly, the system ’assumed’ Arthur still needed more to match his level, and so it continued to pull from the deep reserve, force-feeding him raw strength in place of future levels.
This odd process pushed him beyond his usual limitations, sustaining him just long enough to finish the fight with Vonun.
Through a strange series of glitches and coincidences, Arthur managed to stay in the fight longer than he should have as a newly minted Transcendent.
"Long story short, I used up all the EXP I got from killing Yujia as power to kill Vonun."
Arthur summarised that whole talk to Artemisia, Beatrix and Evan who nodded in understanding.
Then again, even if this series of coincidences did not occur, Arthur still had a means to achieve victory against Vonun that did not involve him releasing Lostvayne.
That means came in the form a Cosmic Artifact he’d picked up in January.
|Scales of Balance: Replica No. #396
Type; Low Grade Cosmic Artifact.
This is a Replica of an Ancient Cosmic Artifact with the power of ’Balance’.
Effects:
This Artifact is bestowed with the Ability to Start a [Ceremony of Weighing Existences]. While the Ceremony is in effect, both parties cannot move or use any of their abilities.
The Ceremony is conducted with Two Parties: The User and designated allies (If Any) and a Designated Target or group of Targets.
Both Parties can have a Maximum of 5 Existences as Members.
Depending on the ’Overall Power’ difference between the User and the Targets, ’Compensations’ are granted to the User, allowing them to ’BALANCE’ their Power Level against a more powerful foe.
Restrictions:
It can only be used ONCE every set of 24 Hours.
As this is but a Replica and not the ’True’ Scales of Balance, it has a Limited Number of Activations.
Remaining Activations: 3
Current Owner: Arthur Vaughn. |
It had been sitting in his Inventory since he, Alvey, and McEnda had stormed Aldwell in January (Chapters 454-457).
Granted, it only had three Activations left, so Arthur really didn’t want to use it if he didn’t have to. But if his life was truly at Risk, Arthur wouldn’t hesitate for even a split second to activate it.
’Why does that sound so contradictory?’
While he was having such thoughts, Beatrix, who had just finished processing his earlier explanation posed a question.
"So, what’s your actual level now?"
